Today, we explored Gardiner, which is where we have been staying the past couple of days. Gardiner is beautiful, with a beautiful mountain view. Our initial impression of the town was that the theme was very authentic and not forced like Jackson. The scenery is gorgeous, right behind our hotel we see the Yellowstone river and the snowcapped mountains in the background. Here is a picture of a map of the main road in town.

Today we went white water rafting and spoke lots with our guide Libby, she was your typical nature girl that you’d expect to be leading an adventure like this. She shared lots of cool information about the local spots and intriging myths about the rock formations in the mountains. After rafting she recommended we walk over to the famous elk burger place next door to try their elk burger. We tried the burger and thought it tasted great. While we were sitting outside eating, the biannual “Hell’s Aroarin’ Horse Drive”  was happening. We went to the sidewalk and had front row seats to watch all the horses run through town along with all the other tourists and town members. This was exciting and a highlight of our trip.

As we were walking through town we noticed the modest looking buildings. The modesty of the buildings matched the simplicity of the people we encountered. We found a couple help wanted signs on the buisnesses and several of the bar-like restaurants were advertising their specials outside daily.

We have enjoyed Gardiner and hope to do some more exploring and meet some more people since we have some free time this evening. #TheGrizzLU